you’re all the same …

the writing is from The Spy Who Came in from the Cold, by John Le Carré; it runs as follows:

“It makes you the same,” Liz continued; “the same as Mundt and all the rest … I should know, I was the one who was kicked about, wasn’t I? By them, by you because you don’t care. Only Fiedler didn’t … But the rest of you … you all treated me as if I was nothing … just currency to pay with … You’re all the same, Alec.”

This speech from Liz is the speech of the utterly defeated; it is blacker than the midnight autobahn Leamas is racing down, carrying her to the end.

I love this book –– the sallow dampness of it, the crumpled suit of ruined ideals.